June 21, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – EvoSwitch (www.evoswitch.com), a Dutch carrier-neutral and CO2-neutral Data Center, has announced that is has completed the expansion of its Amsterdam based Data Center. The expansion is the culmination of successfully selling out the first phase of their data center and continued strong demand for rack space. The new rack space consumes even less power and offers an increased – green – power capacity with 5 up to as much as 20 kW.
The 2,000 square meters of additional floor surface at EvoSwitch comes right on time. ‘A lot of interest has been shown in our green data center in the past year,' says Laurens Rosenthal, Innovation Manager at EvoSwitch. ‘As a result, we were nearing our maximum capacity. Fortunately the expansion means that we have ample space again to serve our customers.’
Data Center Investment: 9 million euros
Developing the 2000 m2 of additional space at the EvoSwitch data center is a capital-intensive exercise. EvoSwitch has invested as much as 9 million euros in building the second phase – creating 2000 m2 of floor surface in addition to the 2000 m2 that are already available. ‘The investment has allowed us to ensure that the new EvoSwitch spaces are of a more efficient design,’ explains Laurens Rosenthal. ‘In the first phase, we had to deal with a number of technological constraints due to the existing infrastructure of the building. These constraints did not exist in the second phase, allowing us to use even more efficient technologies.’
Data Center Netherlands
One of the reasons for the increased efficiency was the use of more advanced cooling technologies than were implemented in the first EvoSwitch building phase. In both cases Free Cooling was used. This is a cooling concept that uses outside air instead of compressors, but the technology used here has been improved. ‘We installed new Free Coolers on the roof. They have a higher capacity but with less resistance,’ says Rosenthal. ‘We expect to be able to further increase our current energy-saving rate of more than 20 percent. In time, the spaces completed in the first phase will benefit as well.’
The new cooling system has an average year EER of 9. The EER or Energy Efficiency Ratio represents the ratio between the cooling energy and the energy required to generate the cooling energy. The higher the EER, the better.
Cheap Data Center
With the second phase, EvoSwitch's energy-saving rate is expected to increase even further. ‘We were able to realize a 20% saving in the first phase,’ explains Rosenthal. ‘The second phase will increase the total saving in terms of power consumption at EvoSwitch.’
EvoSwitch is a member of the Green Grid. This group has developed a method to indicate the degree to which a specific data center’s operations can be considered energy-efficient and green. The method is called Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). The PUE value can range from 1 to 3, and the closer you are the 1, the greener the data center. ‘Worldwide, several market parties believe that a value of 1.6 is the best you can achieve. But our calculations show that we can realize an even lower PUE. This is extremely efficient and therefore environmentally friendly,’ says Rosenthal.
High Density Hosting
The 19-inch racks in the new spaces have a higher (green) power capacity per rack, thereby enabling medium and high density hosting. According to Rosenthal many market parties – including a number of big companies – have already shown a lot of interest. 'A cooling capacity of 5 kW on average for a 19-inch rack is already fairly high,’ explains Rosenthal. ‘It means that the commonly offered power and cooling capacity in the market are doubled. Some market parties need this capacity for medium density hosting – and we are now able to deliver it. And we can also offer high density now, up to as much as 20kW per rack.’
Energy Capacity Data Center: 20 MVA
In the second phase, the number of 2.5 MVA transformers was doubled from two to four. The data center also took two new UPSs into production, each with a capacity of 2 MVA. In addition to the two existing 1.5 MVA emergency power generators, another eight – including a double back-up series – have been installed. EvoSwitch also recently doubled its power capacity from 10 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere) to 20 MVA, which represents about 20 million Watts. As a result, ample power capacity is available for the current 4000 m2 of floor surface.
19-inch Racks
Because building a data center is a capital-intensive exercise, EvoSwitch is being delivered in a series of consecutive phases. The new 2000 m2 of additional floor surface represent the 2nd phase. The 3rd phase of EvoSwitch is expected to start towards the end of 2008. ‘There is a lot of interest in the green data center,' says Rosenthal. ‘If the number of new customers continues to grow as it has in the past year, I expect we will be able to start building the 3rd phase towards the end of the year, as we originally planned.’
